Course directors

Russell Keable

Russell Keable

Russell Keable has established a reputation as one of Britains most exciting and versatile musicians. Keable and his orchestra did magnificently wrote The Guardian, one of the most memorable evenings at the South Bank’ said The Musical Times. He performs with orchestras and choirs throughout the British Isles including the London Mozart Players, Manchester Camerata, Northern Ballet Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Viva and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor for the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra and has conducted in Prague and Paris (concerts filmed by French and British television). His regular performing partners include many leading national and international soloists (including Steven Isserlis, Tasmin Little, Nikolai Demidenko, John Lill and Nicholas Daniel).

Keable, a graduate of Nottingham University, studied conducting with George Hurst and Norman Del Mar at London’s Royal College of Music, and violin with Maria Lidka. His academic interests have led him to seek out much rare repertoire. He revived Dvorak’s opera Dimitrij for a British stage première in Nottingham and a London première concert performance. Research in Los Angeles led to a reconstruction of music from Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s film score for The Sea Hawk. Other revivals have included the British première of Korngold’s celebrated opera Die tote Stadt, Nadia Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène, Copland’s ballet Grohg, and less-well-known works by many British composers.

He broadcasts regularly on Radio 3 and was invited by the BBC to conduct the world première of Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony in the final concert of the 2005 Listen Up Festival (broadcast live from the Royal Festival Hall); a performance that was awarded the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award as part of the 2005 British Composer Awards.

For 21 years he has been associated with Kensington Symphony Orchestra, one of the UK’s finest non-professional orchestras, with whom he has led first performances of works by many British composers (including Maxwell Davies, Knussen, Woolrich, Holloway, Colin and David Matthews, Joby Talbot and John McCabe). His British première of Aulis Sallinen’s Symphony no.8 was praised by The Sunday Times as a ‘finely-judged performance’.

Russell is also in demand as a composer, arranger and teacher. He has written works for many British ensembles and has had premières throughout the UK (including at the Edinburgh, Norwich, Aberystwyth and Newbury Spring Festivals). His opera Burning waters, commissioned by the Buxton Festival as part of their millenium celebration, was premièred in July 2000. In 2005 he was appointed Director of Conducting for the University of Surrey in Guildford.

Trevor Barlow

Trevor Barlow

Trevor Barlow received his BA(Hons) in performance from Colchester and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Reading University. Trevor teaches clarinet and saxophone and works in several schools in the county, including Sawston Village College and Hills Road Sixth Form College. As Artistic Director for ACE, he is the driving force behind the musical development of ACE Foundation’s beautiful complex at Stapleford Granary in Cambridgeshire.

In addition to his work in music education, Trevor is in great demand as a performer. His clarinet and saxophone quartet, The Ebony Quartet, has toured extensively across the United Kingdom with noteworthy performances along London’s South Bank, at the International Clarinet Congress in Paris and on British television. He has made several recordings with the Ebony Quartet, his Jazz Band, Cambridge Blue, Shakey Breaks the Ice, and as a solo clarinetist. Trevor is also a member of the Cambridge Wind Players, an ensemble dedicated to performance of wind music of composers such as Mozart, Strauss, Dvorak, Weill and others.

David Minchin

David Minchin

David was born in Cambridge and attended local schools before going to study composition and tuba at The Royal Northern College of Music. He was a member of the National Youth Brass Band and Principal Tuba for over two years. He is well known as a local teacher and musician, playing in many orchestras on both the trombone and tuba as well as in brass bands and in the Galaxy Big Band.

A former conductor of Waterbeach Brass, David is regularly asked to conduct other bands and ensembles in the area. His compositions have been performed widely, including in the United States and Canada, and he writes educational material for beginner brass players.

In 2013, David was commissioned to write a piece for Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra to celebrate 75 years since the Orchestra’s inception. David has tutored the bands on Holiday Orchestra courses for many years and has been a Course Director since 2016.
Currently David is working with Special Needs children in Cambridge.